California health insurers, regulators and consumers scrambled Thursday to figure out the next step for more than 1 million state residents who face cancellations of their current policies under the Affordable Care Act.

Hours after President Obama encouraged insurers to let policyholders keep their current plans for now, the state's insurance commissioner, Dave Jones, called for the state's health insurance marketplace, Covered California, to lift a provision requiring health insurers to terminate individual policies that fall short of the health law's requirements.

Those policies were to end by Dec. 31 and people would be offered new options that cover all the benefits in the federal health law.

"The federal government told people in California and throughout the United States they could stay in their existing plans," Jones said Thursday at a news conference in the San Francisco offices of the Department of Insurance. "Clearly there was a commitment made to them, and I think it's important that commitment be upheld."

Jones said he doesn't have the authority to force the exchange and insurance companies to let policyholders keep their current plans, but hopes they will give people a choice. Nothing in federal or state law requires anyone's policies to be terminated by Dec. 31, Jones said.

Covered California officials didn't say what they plan to do.

"Covered California looks forward to working with Commissioner Jones and other partners on the behalf of California consumers," said Larry Hicks, a spokesman for the agency, in a statement. "We're assessing the impact and analyzing our options on how we will incorporate the president's directive into our existing policy and direction."

State and federal insurance trade groups representing the insurers said changing the rules to allow people keep noncompliant policies could destabilize the market and lead to higher rates. The insurer groups argued that 2014 rates were set based on when consumers would be entering the marketplace and the change could mean that fewer healthy, younger people will decide to buy in the exchanges, and that would create an unbalanced pool of older, sicker people.

Jones rejected those concerns and pointed to policy extensions he already secured from Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield for a combined 217,000 policyholders because the insurers failed to notify them within state-mandated time frame.

Meanwhile, people should compare the benefits of their current plans with those offered through Covered California and, if they're not eligible for subsidies, shop outside the exchange as well, said Betsy Imholz, special projects director in Consumers Union's San Francisco offices.

"Before you hit the panic button, look around," she said. "Your current plan may not be as good as you thought it was."